Le mariage de Beyoncé & Jay-Z

RIHANNA SHOCKED BY BEYONCE AND JAY-Z'S WEDDING

Like many of Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles's friends and colleagues, Rihanna had no idea about the happy couple's hush-hush nuptials last week. "I didn't know!" Rihanna told PEOPLE at the Escada Moon Sparkle/Island Def Jam benefit for her Believe Foundation and DKMS, the world's largest bone marrow donor center. "No one knew!" (Although the wedding has not been officially confirmed, sources tell PEOPLE the ceremony did take place April 4 and Knowles has been spotted wearing a huge ring.) Among those in the audience at Manhattan's Highland Ballroom were L.A. Reid and Rihanna's "friend" Chris Brown. "Chris said it was a good show," the 20-year-old said of her rumored beau. "He really enjoyed it." After the show, Rihanna met with several young bone marrow transplant patients. "You are so beautiful," she told 15-year-old Camila Mera.

BEYONCE AND JAY-Z'S BLOCKBUSTER WEDDING OF LITTLE INTEREST TO THE TABLOIDS

Kudos to Us Weekly for being the only tabloid wise enough to realize Americans might be just as interested in Beyonce and Jay-Z’s (maybe) wedding as, say, a white girl like Katherine Heigl’s. (update: Now People magazine has Bee on the cover as well). Janice Min might be the only celeb weekly editor who understands the newsstand lure of black celebs; her magazine’s Janet Jackson “How I Lost 40 Pounds” issue was among its best selling ever (though it’s said that Min was on leave, and didn’t have much to do with it). While the paparazzi hounded the Tribeca apartment building where Jay-Z and Beyonce supposedly got married, and the local television news had a field day guessing why everyone was wearing white, OK!, In Touch, Star, and Life & Style all ignored the week’s biggest story on their covers. How come? Because of the industry adage that blacks, no matter how famous, cannot move a magazine. Had Beyonce tried to sell her wedding pics, one tabloid editor says she would’ve fetched as little as $250k. (Point of reference: Christina Aguilera sold her baby photos for $1.5 million to People, who assumed they would lose money on the deal.) Granted, Eva Longoria (of Mexican descent) and Tony Parker (black) managed to sell their wedding photos to OK! for $2 million last year, but it’s arguable Longoria has transcended her skin color (yes, that’s as awful as that sounds) and, when combined with her publicity whoring, it isn’t so far fetched. (And let’s not kid ourselves that Parker was even part of the equation.) Instead, this week the tabloids went with much less buzzworthy stories: In Touch had Britney relapsing, Life & Style chronicled Jennifer Lopez’s 40 pound weight loss, Star did a similar pictorial on post-baby weight transformations, and OK! just plain made up a story about Jennifer Aniston and Orlando Bloom getting cozy.

PETA SENDS BEYONCE A WEDDING PRESENT

It’s no secret that Beyonce has been donning designer furs for several years, and she even used fur in her fashion line House of Dereon. However, it seems as though the hip-hoppin’ hottie has had a change of heart. However, two years on, Beyonce is Jay-Z ’s wife, though she hasn't admitted it yet — and Pop Tarts has been told exclusively that PETA has been part of the surprise celebration. After monitoring (or perhaps stalking) the sexy starlet every day throughout the winter, the organization never once spotted her wearing fur, motivating PETA Senior VP Lisa Lange to send the newlyweds a throw blanket from the ultra-luxe faux fur maker Fabulous Furs.

"From all of us at PETA, we wish you much happiness in your life together. Please accept this faux-fur throw with many good wishes and a hope from us that together, you’ll be a fur-free couple!" Lange wrote in the congratulatory card obtained by Pop Tarts. Click here to see the card (pdf).

"Time will tell if Beyonce is truly committed to being fur-free, but all indications are that she’s become a real ‘Dreamgirl’ for fur-bearing animals," Lange said.

GWYNETH PALTROW - THE THINGS THEY SAY

"What wedding? I was watching a movie on Friday night." GWYNETH PALTROW refuses to confirm she attended pals JAY-Z and BEYONCE KNOWLES' nuptials in New York on Friday

Beyonce asked mum for wedding dress

Beyonce Knowles’ wedding dress was designed by her mother.

The Crazy In Love singer, who married hip-hop mogul Jay-Z at his New York apartment in front of 40 guests last week, reportedly asked her mom Tina to create a long, white gown for her special day.

A source said, “Beyonce looked stunning. She wore a white dress with a low V-neck and thick straps.” Tina — who designed many of the matching outfits Beyonce and her former Destiny’s Child bandmates wore when they performed — is also believed to have created a special dress for her daughter to party in after the intimate ceremony.

Meanwhile, PETA have sent the newlyweds a fake fur throw blanket in a bid to urge Beyonce to stop wearing animal pelts. In a card accompanying the wedding present, the animal right campaigners wrote, “From all of us at PETA, we wish you much happiness in your life together.

Please accept this faux-fur throw with many good wishes and a hope from us that together, you’ll be a fur-free couple!” Beyonce has been a fan of designer furs for several years and used fur in her fashion line launched with her mother.

Trini planned Beyonce’s wedding

Power couple Beyonce Knowles and Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter created a stir with news agencies all over the world speculating whether a secret wedding ceremony on April 4 had taken place.

They had been dating for six years. Few details of the wedding ceremony and all-night after party have trickled down the grapevine, but Trinidadian Colin Abraham, president of the event organising company, Pollen Nation, gave Sunday Newsday a full description of the couple’s magical night.

Abraham’s job was to take care of the decor at Jay-Z’s Manhattan apartment, the wedding’s venue.

Abraham, an event planner, grew up in Barataria. He was a student at the Barataria Senior Comprehensive school and after that he entered the Prison Service and then to the Police Service before leaving the country in 1998 to pursue a course in sound engineering in New York.

While studying he worked part time as a floral decorator at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel before launching Pollen Nation in 1999. One of his first major clients was hip-hop mogul Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs when he started decorating for his famous annual “White Party” at his home in the East Hamptons. “I have been working with Diddy for seven years now and with that I have been introduced to many people in the music industry and through him Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter saw my work and he also became a client,” he explained.

Working with Jay-Z, Abraham learned that the entrepreneur likes to live a very private life.

“That is why the wedding was so hush hush, no one knew when it was going to happen, what or who was involved,” he said.

He revealed he only saw Jay-Z twice throughout all the planning because he was still on tour with fellow artiste Mary J Blige.

“Beyonce worked hands on with me on everything, from the type of flowers to the colour theme we would use at Jay-Z’s penthouse in Manhattan,” the 39-year-old said.

Beyonce’s choice for the colour theme was ivory and cream with whites and greens.

“Her choice for flowers were orchids and what I did was set up foot long garlands from the floor to the ceiling, then there were columns of branches with crystals at the end,” he revealed.

He touched on the internet reports that said that Asian florist, Amy Vongpitaka was the one responsible for the wedding’s floral decor.

“That woman is just a wholesaler, I ordered 100,000 orchids from her and she sent it down to me. She did not even know what or who the flowers were for,” Abraham explained.

To make sure everything went smoothly Abraham and his staff of 12 worked nights three days before the big day.

Abraham described the entire wedding as “very simple and intimate.”

“Less is more and when we were done, we transformed the whole place and it was magnificent. Beyonce was really happy she could not stop kissing me,” he said.

The wedding began at 8 pm on Friday when Beyonce walked down the aisle accompanied by her father Matthew Knowles without any bridesmaids. After the ceremony the newlyweds celebrated their nuptials until six the next morning.

The 40 invited guests, which included Gwyneth Paltrow and former members of Destiny’s Child, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, dined on “soul food” which included chicken, shrimp and “gumbo” a dish popular in southern states and had the choice of champagne or tequila shots.

“After they had dinner they transformed the dining area into a dance floor and everybody had a good time,” he revealed. In 2006 Abraham planned more than 150 events and has worked with LA Reid and Warner Music.

Abraham who recently married last year is a father of three with one on the way.

His business has branches in Manhattan, Brooklyn. He hopes to open one in New Jersey. His clientele ranges from President George Bush to Queen Latifah.